Personal pride

Chalk it up

In an Eau Claire, Wisconsin home, blackboard gift tags inspire the holiday scheme, which includes a small slate atop the living room's tree. The family cuts the tree at a local farm, trims it with kid-made and store-bought ornaments, then tosses a blanket underneath.

Easy elegance

With two pheasant hunters in the family, it is fitting this tree gets a wispy look from feathers. The tree harmonizes with the sage green walls, wood beams and natural flooring in this Missouri home. See next slide for a closeup.

Crafty touches: closeup

Retro fun

This tree at Des Moines' Festival of Trees & Lights features a fun '50s theme with ornaments that include a poodle skirt, Route 66 sign, juke box and records. Note the retro-style gas pump used as a tree topper!

Winter whites: closeup

Lego love

Legos are the star of this kid-friendly tree, featured at Des Moines' Festival of Trees & Lights. A Lego Santa tops the tree, while other holiday-theme Lego constructions dangle from the branches. Clear plastic ornaments filled with Legos also hang from the tree, and the garland includes Lego bricks.

Sparkle

Family touches

Paper chains and photocopied family pictures lend personal touches to this tree. An urn brimming with oranges dresses up the bottom of the tree, while sand and gravel inside the urn stabilize the trunk.

Tree of games

Stamp it

Not sure what to do with old stamps that have only sentimental value? Use Mod Podge to make a stamp collage on a clear plastic ornament. See the next slide for other ideas to create an entire tree themed around Christmas letters, stamps and packages.

Dear Santa

Letters to Santa. Christmas cards from friends. Packages from home. Put all these Christmas memories into a tree themed around mail with ornaments that include stamps glued on ornaments (see previous slide), a garland of postcards, small packages wrapped in kraft paper, small muslin sacks of mail and miniature mailboxes. The tree at left was part of Des Moines' Festival of Trees and Lights, a fundraiser for Blank Children's Hospital; the tree's theme was chosen because of children's love for receiving mail.